"Cost " of an ebook?

[bluefox9er]

Ok, so now apple are trying to make ebooks sexy, it begs the question on what is a fair price for an ebook?

unlike a normal book, ebooks need no tree cutting, saw mills,paper mills, inks, binders and manufacturing, storage,shipping, shelf space and retail over heads. Heck there's no difference between hardback and paperback any more.

'ebook sellers' will have literally zero cost ...so what would be a fair price to pay for one?

I think anything in the $14 to $10 range is simply disgusting. theoretically, it's the authors royalties, the rest belongs to apple.

also, consider that once you hav e 'read' an ebook you will not be able to pass/loan it to someone else, or donate it to a library.


I'm sticking to REAL books unless they remove DRM...which they have no real right to force on us to begin with.

 

[superbike81]

How much are you expecting to pay for a book? $10 for the hours of entertainment it will provide seems like a bargain to me, but maybe I'm not looking at it the same way you do. You don't the author deserves some money for their work?


The primary books I'll be reading once I get my iPad are textbooks for college. I compared the cost of the current books I have for this school term, and the cost for the e-book equivalent, and for three books (which I bought used), I would have saved $160. I don't re-sell my books, I like to hang on to them for reference purposes in the future.

Sure, I could view all these e-books on a laptop, but the battery dies after 3.5hours, not long enough to take me through a school day. So the iPad will function perfectly as an e-reader for me.

So there is quite a bit of saving in college e-textbooks.

 

[fleurya]

It's like the advent of the mp3 all over again. Record labels have to make so much more from mp3's than CD's, but an album still costs roughly the same. At least they eventually got over DRM. I just wish book publishers (e-reader makers, or whoever is responsible) would learn from the music industry

I like the idea of e-books. As a frequent traveler, having several books and mags in a small device is extremely desirable. I don't even mind the cost so long as they give me some kind of price break from a paperback. But I haven't pulled the trigger because of 2 things: high cost of entry (readers still cost over $200 and up to $500) and all of the confusion over the different formats and DRM issues. Maybe, MAYBE I would get a reader if I was sure I could get any book on it, but there's NO WAY I'm spending $300+ only to find out that the book I want can't be read on my device.

I think Apple may help with this, because at least with the iPad I can do more than just read books, so it's not a waste of money if I can't get the book I want from the Apple bookstore because I still use the iPad for other things.

Let's just hope the format wars burn hot and die fast so us consumers can finally get an open media delivery system we should already have.

 

[Kash]

I actually looked into this and turns out physical production is a very small part of a book's cost. Most of it goes into paying the author and employees of the publishing company.

However, I would still like to see some sort of price difference between a physical book and an e-book. It's insulting when you can buy a paperback for the same price as an e-book. What's the incentive there? How am I supposed to have my e-book reader earn its cost back if I'm not saving any money on the e-books? Even a few dollars here or there would make it worthwhile, like say $6 or $7 instead of $10 for an average novel.

I am definitely interested in the iPad, but I really wish publishers would stop charging so much for books, especially texbooks. $500 a semester for books that I'm going to be using just for a few months is painful on a student's budget.

fleurya, Apple has adopted the ePub format for the iPad, which is definitely a good thing since it's a fantastic format for both consumers and publishers. Plus, the entire Google Books collection is in ePub format, so you have access to over a million free titles through that. Also, the iPad should support PDF documents, so there's two formats that you can view books in.

 

[superbike81]

I am definitely interested in the iPad, but I really wish publishers would stop charging so much for books, especially texbooks. $500 a semester for books that I'm going to be using just for a few months is painful on a student's budget.

Did you not read my post?

If I would have had the iPad this semester, I would saved $160 over the paper version of my books.

 

[joshbrez]

It's insulting when you can buy a paperback for the same price as an e-book.

While I at first thought I agreed 100% with this, my response now is, "Why?"

Don't get me wrong, I'd still like ebooks to be cheaper, since as you say I'd like to recap the cost of the device. However, there could be many who say that the cost of the reader is the cost of the convenience of not having to carry physical books. I'm right with you on the idea, but I'm not sure the market will really move that way, especially as devices like the iPad become more and more commonplace for people as their primary machines (say, 10 years out).

 

[superbike81]

My iPad will be completely paid for in 3 semesters of school, anything beyond that is a bonus.

 

[bobtomay]

Good for you!!!

This is an old debate that has been hashed and re-hashed for two years when Amazon came out with the Kindle.

The owners of any copyrighted material have the "right" to do with it as they see fit.

You, as the end user of said copyrighted material have the "right" to decide whether to purchase or not purchase that material.

But, my question is, just why do the naysayers have this compelling need to tell the rest of us why they don't need something and why?

There is no one on a mission to convince you that you "need" one.

If you don't want, don't need, don't care about a particular device, what is it that drives you to put out your ideas as the only ones acceptable or that make sense?

Why is it that the naysayers all feel as if they have been given a mission from God to tell the rest of us why it's not needed? Those of you that don't want it, don't buy the thing for Pete's sake.

I don't comprehend this debate those that don't want a particular device feel the need for. The same debate could be had related to televisions, computers and mobile phones. I still know plenty of folks that own not a single one of these and get on in life just fine without them.

 

[TattooedMac]

Does anyone know the size of a average paged eBook ??

KB, MB, GB ??
This would be a underlying factor to with the HD size that the iPad comes in.
Would you be able to store your whole years worth of text books on it easily enuf and still have room for other Apps, music, Photo's ??

 

[superbike81]

Does anyone know the size of a average paged eBook ??

KB, MB, GB ??
This would be a underlying factor to with the HD size that the iPad comes in.
Would you be able to store your whole years worth of text books on it easily enuf and still have room for other Apps, music, Photo's ??

Well, they say you can store 1500+ Books on the Kindle 2, and I think 3500+ on the Kindle DX. E-book sizes are in MB, just think of a few hundred page PDF file, about the same size.

 

[TattooedMac]

Well, they say you can store 1500+ Books on the Kindle 2, and I think 3500+ on the Kindle DX. E-book sizes are in MB, just think of a few hundred page PDF file, about the same size.

Thanks man ... I probably could have googled it but im feeling rather lazy this morn ...

 

[bobtomay]

Haven't really checked size per book. Have maybe 100 on our first gen Kindle. No place near filling it up. Might have 6 books from Amazon and a few others on my iPhone. They take up miniscule amounts of space compared to anything else you would be storing.

One thing to find out about the ebooks is how Apple is going to handle the downloads.

Amazon keeps a record of all your books and they can be downloaded again and again to the devices set up on your account. So, there is no need to keep them all stored somewhere. My wife and I can be reading the same book at the same time on two separate devices.

For those curious about audio books, Audible is set up the same way. As long as you're a member, you have the capability of re-downloading any of your purchases at any time.

 

[fleurya]

While I at first thought I agreed 100% with this, my response now is, "Why?"

Don't get me wrong, I'd still like ebooks to be cheaper, since as you say I'd like to recap the cost of the device. However, there could be many who say that the cost of the reader is the cost of the convenience of not having to carry physical books. I'm right with you on the idea, but I'm not sure the market will really move that way, especially as devices like the iPad become more and more commonplace for people as their primary machines (say, 10 years out).

The convenience factor also plays a big role for me. As a frequent business traveler this will replace a second laptop I carry with me and the bulk of a book and magazines. That and having a device with a battery life of more than 3 hours of long flights is huge for me.

Granted, I could use my work laptop instead of carrying my own, but I don't like big brother knowing my business, and technically in any company personal use of company property is prohibited.

I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that this is going be to huge with heavy business travelers, especially if THIS ends up working pretty well.

 

[superbike81]

Yeah, the battery life is huge for me as well. Living in Japan but being from Seattle, and having a wife who's family is in Japan, we do a lot of international traveling. I *really really really* hope the 10hr battery life claims are true. 8 hours would be great, but 10 hours would be amazing.

What I also wonder (going slightly off topic here, sorry). I sometimes carry a Energizer dock recharger that uses 2 (or 4? can't remember) rechargeable AA batteries and it can charge my iPhone fully 2-3 times. I hope it will be compatible with the iPad, even if it could only give it one full charge. It's small and easy to carry, so wouldn't be like carrying an extra laptop battery.

 

[fleurya]

^^ Jobs said in the keynote that it will be compatible with all current connecting accessories, but take that with a grain of salt. I got a car adapter for my car that charged my first gen iPhone and let me play it through my stereo. My 3G still works with the stereo, but they did something with 3G and later and it won't charge.

 

[Doc750]

E-book prices?

I don't understand the need to charge $15-25+ for an e-book, other then of course profitability. But the expense on their end has been significantly reduced. There is no need for paper, distribution, transportation, logistics, storage, employee, printing unsold copies, etc, etc.

A book that is 100 pages long, or 1000. All your doing is transmitting a small file. Not to mention you've completely eliminated the used book market. Everyone will have to buy a new copy.

I never really gave kindle, or any the other ones a real shot. I always just got the paperbacks. But honestly I could see myself getting books for the iPad. But the price should be drastically cut.

And forcing Amazon to raise their prices to match the Apple store prices, was a load of crock too. As consumers we should just boycott the entire e-book market, until they bring their prices in line with the cost reduction benefits.

 

[bobtomay]

Note: Merged duplicate threads and moved to appropriate forum.

 

[boneheadz]

Did you not read my post?

If I would have had the iPad this semester, I would saved $160 over the paper version of my books.

I have been looking into the text book thing and it seems that they want to "lease" you the textbook. It would expire at the end of the semester.

Textbooks face digital future | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com

that would be a bummer.

 

[chas_m]

Ok, so now apple are trying to make ebooks sexy, it begs the question on what is a fair price for an ebook?

What the market will bear without illegal collusion between the publishing houses.

I think anything in the $14 to $10 range is simply disgusting. theoretically, it's the authors royalties, the rest belongs to apple.

As a published book author myself, I can say with some authority that that's not how it works. If only it did (sigh).

The cost to manufacture books isn't all that much, and neither is the author's royalty unless your name is Stephen King. Even if your name IS Stephen King, the royalty and manufacturing costs are well below 10% of the price.

The rest is distribution costs, promotion costs, publisher profit and store profit. In that order.

In an iBookstore/Apple ebook type arrangement, Apple will probably take what use to be the store profit percentage. The publisher will take most of what used to be the distribution cost as profit, but to be fair will also spend more on promotion. The author MIGHT see an increase in royalties, but this would be quite minor I'm sure.

also, consider that once you hav e 'read' an ebook you will not be able to pass/loan it to someone else, or donate it to a library.

I don't know this to be true at all -- there's really been no official discussion of what, if any, DRM will be on the ePub files Apple will use. It's worth remembering that Apple has been the leading light in the fight to REMOVE drm from electronic purchases ... but even if the evil publishers' lobby gets some restrictive DRM, it will likely a) hurt sales and b) move people to check out other ePub and PDF reader apps (which all work with the iPad, btw) and the enormous alternative libraries thus available.

This is one of the few times you'll ever hear me say this, but on this front I think capitalism/the market will exert its influence in a way that generally favours consumers.